WENDY VICTORA: Friends define adventure differently but together

Published: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 at 02:22 PM.

When I went to college in the late ’70s, I met the woman who would become my best friend for life.

Back then, she and I were more alike than different.

We went to college to have fun and to get a good education, while having fun.

We went to bars to meet boys and had lots of male friends and were a little bit wild, but not too much. Or at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

She came from a small town in Wisconsin, while I grew up in a small town in Illinois.

Over the years, we’ve stayed close through all of the ups and downs that life has tossed at us.

We buried my parents together.

We stood up for each other at our weddings.

She came to stay when I had my babies and is the one to whom we handed our screaming inconsolable firstborn in the sleep-deprived early days of parenthood.

She didn’t have kids, wasn’t planning to have kids and had more experience with backpacking than she did soothing newborn babies. But she did her best to soothe our unhappy baby while I hormonally crashed and burned in the next room.

These days, our lives are even more divergent.

I spend my weekends doing laundry, driving my kids around and watching them compete in sports.

She spends hers traveling. Big trips, small trips, day trips — she and her husband do it all. They go camping, cross-country skiing, hiking and back-packing.

They bought a minivan to convert into a mobile camper.

We bought a minivan so we had enough room to haul three children and all of their paraphernalia around.

She’s fit and goes to a boot-camp-like fitness class before work in the morning.

I celebrate walking 30 minutes a few days a week.

She spends a lot on her clothes. I spend a lot on my kids’ clothes.

As we have traveled through the past three decades, I have peered at her life and wondered what it would be like.

I’m sure she has done the same at mine.

She’s more like the Adventure Club members you’ll read about in this edition of EC50+.

I’m more like, well, the mom who runs fast and hard to keep up with the needs of her household.

We’re both happy with the paths we’ve chosen and the compromises we’ve made to get where we are.

Reaching the 50-year milestone isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition.

Daily News Staff Writer Wendy Victora can be reached at 850-315-4478 or wvictora@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @WendyVnwfdn.

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When I went to college in the late ’70s, I met the woman who would become my best friend for life.

Back then, she and I were more alike than different.

We went to college to have fun and to get a good education, while having fun.

We went to bars to meet boys and had lots of male friends and were a little bit wild, but not too much. Or at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

She came from a small town in Wisconsin, while I grew up in a small town in Illinois.

Over the years, we’ve stayed close through all of the ups and downs that life has tossed at us.

We buried my parents together.

We stood up for each other at our weddings.

She came to stay when I had my babies and is the one to whom we handed our screaming inconsolable firstborn in the sleep-deprived early days of parenthood.

She didn’t have kids, wasn’t planning to have kids and had more experience with backpacking than she did soothing newborn babies. But she did her best to soothe our unhappy baby while I hormonally crashed and burned in the next room.

These days, our lives are even more divergent.

I spend my weekends doing laundry, driving my kids around and watching them compete in sports.

She spends hers traveling. Big trips, small trips, day trips — she and her husband do it all. They go camping, cross-country skiing, hiking and back-packing.

They bought a minivan to convert into a mobile camper.

We bought a minivan so we had enough room to haul three children and all of their paraphernalia around.

She’s fit and goes to a boot-camp-like fitness class before work in the morning.

I celebrate walking 30 minutes a few days a week.

She spends a lot on her clothes. I spend a lot on my kids’ clothes.

As we have traveled through the past three decades, I have peered at her life and wondered what it would be like.

I’m sure she has done the same at mine.

She’s more like the Adventure Club members you’ll read about in this edition of EC50+.

I’m more like, well, the mom who runs fast and hard to keep up with the needs of her household.

We’re both happy with the paths we’ve chosen and the compromises we’ve made to get where we are.

Reaching the 50-year milestone isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition.

Daily News Staff Writer Wendy Victora can be reached at 850-315-4478 or wvictora@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @WendyVnwfdn.